On September 18, 2007, computer science
professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people
at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called
“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT
scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the
cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life
in a matter of months. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful,
energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He seemed
invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.
Randy’s lecture has become a phenomenon,
celebrating the dreams we all strive to make realities. And now, in
his book based on the now-famous lecture, Randy goes even deeper to
inspire us all. Randy died July 25, 2008 of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47.
